Evaluating binaural rendering against stereo mixes is frequently confounded by "content bias," where listeners' inherent musical preferences obscure spatial quality assessments. To address this, we propose an interpretable predictive model utilizing a pairwise differential approach (Delta Strategy) and a dimension-wise attention neural network. The model achieves a competitive sign accuracy of 68.4%, outperforming traditional baselines. Crucially, the attention mechanism provides retrospective interpretability, revealing fundamental acoustic trade-offs in spatial upmixing: aggressive decorrelation for image widening compromises localization precision and timbral fullness, whereas successful externalization heavily depends on mid-side energy redistribution. This framework offers a robust evaluation tool for spatial algorithms and actionable psychoacoustic guidance for immersive audio production.
Designing interactive music systems in Virtual Reality (VR) requires balancing intuitive entry points with expressive depth, yet it remains unclear how domain-specific knowledge (Music Expertise) and medium-specific experience (VR Familiarity) distinctly shape the user experience within these environments. This paper investigates how user expertise impacts engagement with an interactive VR music experience. We conducted a mixed-methods study with 32 participants, categorized by these two factors, to systematically evaluate their influence on perceived usability, immersion, and interaction behavior. Results indicate that Music Expertise significantly enhanced perceived usability, whereas VR Familiarity had no significant effect. Perceived immersion was reported as universally high across all groups, regardless of background. Behavioral data revealed distinct engagement patterns: Experts and VR-familiar users focused more on 6DoF spatial mixing controls, while novices required significantly more time and physical exploration. These findings suggest that for creative VR tools, domain knowledge is a stronger predictor of usability than technical fluency. We discuss the success of a ‘Low Floor, High Ceiling, and Wide Walls’ design and propose critical design implications for onboarding, interaction metaphors, and aligning user intent in embodied music systems.
The perceptual evaluation of spatial and immersive audio systems commonly relies on listening tests, where the role of listener-related factors is often treated as secondary. While previous studies have shown that listener expertise can influence performance in virtual audio tasks, this has not been systematically investigated in more complex mixed real–virtual and dynamic listening scenarios. This study examines the role of listener background in a six-degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) spatial detection task involving virtual and real sound sources. Eighteen participants identified the presence of a virtual speech source among concurrent targets and distractors while freely navigating a loudspeaker-based scene. Listener background was characterised by years of musical training and self-reported experience with spatial audio technologies, used to categorise participants as expert or naïve. Results show above-chance performance, with reduced accuracy in spatially adjacent conditions. Listeners with greater musical training and spatial audio experience achieved higher percent-correct scores. These findings are consistent with prior work on listener-dependent localisation performance, and extend them to a 6DoF mixed real–virtual context. The results highlight the importance of explicitly considering and reporting participant expertise in the design, analysis, and interpretation of spatial audio perception studies.
Several studies suggest that singers adapt their vocal production to room acoustics, and virtual reality (VR) has increasingly been used to investigate such interactions under controlled conditions. However, questions remain regarding the ecological validity of virtual acoustic environments for studying musicians’ behavior. While prior research has primarily focused on solo singers, the present study explores the impact of acoustic modality (real vs. virtual) on choral performance. A professional four-singer ensemble performed five different choral pieces across five acoustic conditions. Recordings were conducted both in situ, within different spaces of a church, and under corresponding virtual acoustic simulations using auralization techniques. Acoustic and physiological data were collected using close microphones and electroglottography, while subjective perceptions were assessed through questionnaires. Comparative analyses between real and virtual conditions aim to examine how acoustic modality (real or virtual) influences singers’ musical and physiological adaptations, as well as their subjective perceptions.
